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Luda
The Luda-class destroyer is a REDFOR command ship and naval combatant. It first appeared in Wargame: Red Dragon. History In the years immediately following the Chinese Revolution, the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) operated only a minor naval force, relative to the size of the country. As late as the early 1970's, the core of the PLAN consisted only of a handful of ex-Soviet warships, donated during the brief period of Sino-Soviet collaboration in the 1950's. The Sino-Soviet split after 1960 ended further Soviet assistance, while the generally abysmal state of the Chinese economy during the period restricted any substantial naval construction programmes. However, by the late 1960's the Chinese Nuclear program was in full swing, despite the ongoing turmoil of the cultural revolution. China's small collection of ex-Soviet, WWII-vintage, Anshan-class destroyers and smaller, but marginally more modern Chenghu-class frigates (ex-''Riga'') were inadequate for supporting ICBM testing deep into the Pacific. The need for a larger, longer-ranged vessel was the impetuous for the construction of the Type 051 Luda-class. The Type 051 was apparently patterned off of the 1950's era Soviet Neustrashimy class, or early versions of the later Kotlin class. The original vessels were relatively close to the design philosophy of the Second World War, armed with guns and torpedoes, with modest ASW capability, and driven by steam turbine engines. This initial layout placed the first vessels of the class well behind Western and Soviet developments, both of whom were beginning to focus on missile armaments and anti-submarine warfare. However, the layout of the class' vessels went through major revision over the course of their lifetimes, with the torpedo launchers being replaced, first by HY-1 missiles (Chinese P-15 Termit copy) and later on, by the indigenous C-802 AshM; Anti-aircraft guns were supplemented by HQ-7 SAMs (Chinese Crotale copy). Various combinations of radar and combat data systems were also fitted. Successive upgrades improved the capabilities of the class, but left a dizzying number of variants in what was a modest number of ships, with many individual ships differing wildly in configuration toward the ends of their lives. The seventeen vessels comprising the class were build between 1970 and 1990. The oldest examples served until the mid-2000's before being decommissioned; several of the latest vessels remain in service, as of 2015. Evaluated objectively, the Luda class was obsolete upon commissioning, and never quite managed to match Western equivalents despite extensive reconstruction. On the other hand, the class was the Chinese Navy's first domestically designed and produced warships in the post-war era, and long-served as the backbone of the PLAN fleet. Overview The Luda Class is a low-tier command ship, optimized for surface combat. While equipped with a potent gun armament, the vessel's lack of anti-aircraft defenses render it unsuitable for independent operations. Ludas are best employed for either cost-effective shore bombardment, or in concert with joint task-forces, adding their heavy gun armament to fleet-on-fleet slugmatches. The weaponry of the Luda consists of four 130 mm guns in two twin mountings fore and aft, four twin 37mm cannon mounted one each fore, aft, port and starboard, and six HY-1 anti-ship missiles, mounted on two traversable mounts amidships. In addition to targeting aircraft, the 37mm cannon also serve as anti-missile CIWS defense. The heavy gun armament is the major attraction of the class. The twin 130mm guns are marginally less effective than those carried on the larger Udaloy II and Sovremenny classes, but still possesses a greater punch than any similar BLUFOR armament, save for the Kongo class' 127 mm gun. In addition, with two twin mounts, the amount delivered by a single broadside – four shots apiece – is potentially quite substantial. However, the accuracy of the gunnery is very low at maximum range, meaning most shots are unlikely to hit home. The high HE rating of the guns means that this is only a modest disadvantage for shore bombardment, as even near misses may be lethal, but the low accuracy of the guns do undermine their usefulness for ship-to-ship engagements. The limitations in accuracy become especially acute when the vessel's limited ammunition load is considered – only 160 rounds. As such, while the Luda may successfully eliminate smaller BLUFOR warships with its guns, such as the Baek-Ku, it is likely to deplete it's ammunition before completing an engagement with BLUFOR command vessels. The gun armament is augmented by a reasonably competent anti-ship missile loadout. The six HY-1J missiles are a substantial improvement over the miniscule complement on the less expensive Najin class. The two launchers allow for two missiles to be fired simultaneously; the location of the launchers amidships prevents their use against head-on targets, but missiles can generally be launched 'over the shoulder' against any target at least a few degrees port or starboard of the bow. Generally speaking, the Luda will have difficulty eliminating any high-value target with it's missiles alone, but against a solitary Type 21 or Oliver Hazard Perry, a single chance hit might suffice to 'soften-up' the enemy vessel, allowing it to be finished off with gunfire. While reasonably formidable in surface combat, the Luda class is almost helpless against aircraft. The four 37 mm mounts, while possessing good range relative to most gun-based AA (but much inferior to missiles), lack the accuracy or rate of fire to meaningfully defend against fixed-wing aircraft. Insufficient range means that damaging Anti-ship planes is largely impossible, but even aircraft that do stray into the vessel's engagement envelope are unlikely to be seriously damaged. The Luda's anti-aircraft artillery is so anemic that, during the single-player campaigns, players may in fact sink AI-owned ships with ground-based cluster bombers and AGM aircraft. As the same 37 mm cannon serve as CIWS defenses, anti-missile performance is predictably sub-par. Singular missile attacks may be successfully dealt with, but the vessel is likely to wither under sustained assaults or saturation bombardment. This vulnerability is heightened by the Luda's complete lack of ECM, and the consequent lack of impairment to enemy targeting. Weapons Category:Red Dragon vessels